Film director Roman Polanski fights extradition charges

[Reno Paul]

Hope he finally gets what's coming to him after fleeing the U.S. for pleading guilty to raping a 13 year old in Jack Nicholson's home 32 years ago.

Let him spend the rest of his life in prison.




Roman Polanski faces months behind bars as extradition battle unfolds

The director is fighting his forced return to the U.S. to face punishment for a 30-year-old sex conviction. It is rare for Switzerland to release nonresidents held in such cases.

The chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, where director Roman Polanski lived part of the year. He was arrested at the Zurich Film Festival over the weekend and faces extradition to the U.S. for having sex with a minor 30 years ago. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP/Getty Images / September 29, 2009)

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Reporting from Zurich, Switzerland - Gone are the red carpet and the luxury accommodations, at least for a while. Film director Roman Polanski will probably remain in prison for several months as he fights deportation to the U.S. in a three-decade-old sexual assault case.

His Swiss attorney, one of the country's top criminal lawyers, filed a request in court today that Polanski be set free while his extradition case winds its way through the judicial system.

But such releases are rare for nonresidents in Switzerland, who are generally deemed to be flight risks. And given the lengthy extradition and appeals process, Polanski faces jail time far in excess of the 42 days he already served in Los Angeles back when the charges against him arose.

"We are talking about three, four months easily," said Peter Cosandey, a former prosecutor here with extensive experience in extradition cases. "If he's not released on bail as requested by his lawyers, then he has to remain in prison."

Exactly where Polanski is being held has been kept secret for security reasons, which is normal procedure in Switzerland. Diplomats at the Polish Embassy, who met with Polanski on Monday, declined to disclose his location "to not make it easier for paparazzi to find him," Consul Marek Wieruszewski said in a telephone interview from Bern, the Swiss capital.

Polanski has both Polish and France citizenship. French diplomats have also been in contact with the director.

He is entitled to unlimited access to his high-profile Swiss lawyer, Lorenz Erni, and to consular officials. But beyond that Polanski is living the life of any other jailed suspect, confined to a single cell that he most likely has to himself and allowed an hour of outdoor exercise a day.

"He stressed that he's being treated very well . . . with respect and even some sympathy to his situation," said Wieruszewski. "Conditions are good."

Polanski's arrest Saturday night, while in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival, has inspired impassioned debate across Europe and in North America.

Artists and members of the film world on both sides of the Atlantic have rallied behind him, demanding his release, as have government officials in France and Poland. A letter from the Polish and French foreign ministers to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to intervene in the matter was due to be delivered in Washington today.

But public reaction has been mixed, with many Europeans aghast at support for a fugitive who fled the U.S. in 1978 in the face of charges that he plied a 13-year-old girl with alcohol and drugs and then had sex with her. The director pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with the girl, but left the country before sentencing.

The U.S. has 40 days from the arrest to lodge a formal extradition request, a period that can be extended to 60 days if necessary. The Swiss Justice Ministry then has a week or two to examine the request. If authorities accept the request, Polanski can file a formal appeal in federal court, which would take another few weeks.

Convincing authorities that he ought to be released on bail in the interim would be tough.

"If he lived here in Zurich, worked here in Zurich, had his family here in Zurich, we could say OK, his center of life is in Switzerland, so there's low probability that he will escape," Cosandey said. As that's not the case for Polanski, "the court will say that the danger of escaping is too high."

The director does own a residence in the Swiss resort town of Gstaad, and his attorney in France, Herve Temime, raised the possibility that Polanski could be confined there instead of in prison.

"He has a chalet in Switzerland. He would naturally accept to be placed under house arrest," Temime told reporters in Paris.

Erni, Polanski's Swiss lawyer, did not return calls seeking comment.

Once an extradition request from the U.S. is submitted, Swiss authorities have little room to maneuver in ruling on it, Cosandey said. Under the extradition treaty, the hearing is largely an administrative matter, and as long as proper procedures are followed and administrative criteria satisfied, Switzerland has little choice but to grant the request.

The question of why Polanski was arrested now continued to puzzle many in Europe, because the director has gone in and out of Switzerland for years.

Guido Balmer, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry, dismissed speculation that Switzerland was trying to improve ties with the U.S. after a rocky period in the bilateral relationship.

"There is no link to any other issue," he said. "It's a police matter, so there is no place for any politics."

Media here have speculated that Swiss authorities approached the U.S. first with information that Polanski would be attending the film festival in Zurich.

Balmer said such a scenario was possible, but would be perfectly within the realm of usual cooperation between U.S. and Swiss law enforcement. He added that Polanski's intention to come to Zurich was well-publicized beforehand.

At Polanski's meeting with Polish diplomats Monday, "he looked normal," Wieruszewski said. The director also received a visit from his wife, actress Emmanuelle Seigner.

Wieruszewski said that he was working with Swiss authorities to try to establish a way for Polanski to communicate with the outside -- for example, to contact the embassy if he wishes. As the defendant in an ongoing case, Polanski's communications are automatically restricted.

"I'm trying to explain that, in his case, the investigation was 30 years ago," Wieruszewski said. "It doesn't make sense. Not to give him a computer or the Internet, [but] let him communicate with his lawyer, his family or with the embassy."

henry.chu@latimes.com

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

[Reno Paul]

msnbc.com Video Player

[Dirty]

He shouldn't have been screwing 13 year olds

[YeahBoyHowdy]

he lured her to jack nicholson's home under the guise that he was going to help her modeling career, got her to pose twice topless telling her it was for french vogue, plied her with champagne and a quaalude, and then f*cked her. a f*cking 13 year old. people like this don't really change, and i bet he has done it again. if it were you or me, we'd be under the jail. should be no different for him. political pressure be damned, send that POS back to the USA and let him answer for his crime.

[Dirty]

If it was my daughter I would have hunted his deadbeat ass down and killed him so he better be lucky he is still alive

[Dirty]

Roman Polanski: What Did He Do?


13-Year-Old's Testimony Tells Story Behind Polanski's Guilty Plea to Unlawful Sexual Intercourse


By LUCHINA FISHER
Sept. 30, 2009

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In the more than 30 years since director Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl and then fled the country before he was sentenced, he has continued to make movies and even won an Academy Award.

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Samantha Geiner talks about the 1977 crime in this 2003 interview.


Meanwhile, the details of what actually happened on that day in March 1977 have receded, as even the victim, Samantha Geimer, has said she forgives Polanski and doesn't think he should face further jail time.
Now, with Polanski's arrest over the weekend at the airport in Zurich, Switzerland, there's been renewed interest in the still pending case.



Roman Polanski: What Did He Do? - ABC News

[Dirty]

Video with Victim

Polanski's Victim Speaks About Rape - ABC News

[Brunhuber]

He's a POS! If he did it once, he prolly did it a hundred times!

Little known fact is that in modern day Poland, his place of birth, they would castrate him for molesting a 13 year old girl!

I hope they drag his high-falutin' "two feet off the ground" ass back to the good ol' USA and make him pay for what he did!

The fukkin' worm had a plea bargain in place back in '78 to do 42 days in prison for the crime. 42 days, and that was too much for him! So he fled! Like a coward!

These god-damn hoity-toits in Europe hold him up as some genius! Fuck that! He's a child molester, plain and simple!

I am mad as fukkin' hell about this! Give this bastard the lash!

Because you know what they say! "You mess with the young gash, you're gonna get the ol' lash!"

[Dirty]

Could not have said it better Myself Brun

[Reno Paul]

The saga continues.........Two years in prison????? Give me a fucking break!!!!


U.S. asks Switzerland to extradite Polanski

Director fled sentencing for having unlawful sex with 13-year-old in 1977

Slideshow

Roman Polanski’s life, career A look at the triumphant and tragic events which make up the filmmaker’s history. more photos

updated 1 hour, 53 minutes ago

GENEVA, Switzerland - The United States has asked Switzerland to hand over Roman Polanski to authorities in California, where he could serve up to two years in prison for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl, Swiss authorities said Friday.
The Justice Ministry said in a statement that Washington filed its formal extradition request late Thursday. The 76-year-old filmmaker has been in Swiss custody since his arrest Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to attend a film festival.
The request has been forwarded to Zurich authorities, who will hold a hearing on an unspecified date to decide whether Polanski should be sent back to Los Angeles. If extradition is approved, Polanski may appeal the decision to Switzerland’s top criminal court and, theoretically, to the Federal Supreme Court.

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That means the director of such film classics as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” could remain in a Swiss jail for months more of legal wrangling, even though legal experts say he has little chance of avoiding a return to the United States after 31 years as a fugitive.
The maximum sentence Polanski can receive in California is two years, the Justice Ministry said.
“In the American case, he declared himself guilty of having sexual relations with a minor,” spokesman Folco Galli told Europe-1 radio. “According to American law currently in force, the maximum penalty for the crime in question is two years in prison.”
Galli later told The Associated Press that the sentence couldn’t be longer because Polanski could only be punished for the crime that is the basis of his extradition. He said the U.S. informed the Swiss of the maximum sentence in its filing.
In Paris, Polanski’s lawyer said the director would fight extradition.
“He will oppose this request and continue to ask to be released until the request is examined,” Herve Temime said.
The U.S. had until late November to file for extradition, but the Swiss were already asking on Oct. 5 that the Americans expedite the process, according to documents obtained by the AP.
In an e-mail exchange obtained by the AP under U.S. public records request, Los Angeles prosecutors noted that the “Swiss were very eager to receive an advance English copy of our papers” and “the sooner that the Swiss knew we had filed formal papers the better.”
There was no mention in correspondence of the intense public scrutiny over Polanski’s arrest in the Alpine country, which tipped off U.S. authorities that he was expected five days before his apprehension at Zurich’s airport.
Swiss officials have defended the move as routine procedure. But several politicians and commentators have argued that Switzerland may have cooperated too energetically, and that recent U.S.-Swiss troubles over wealthy American tax cheats and Swiss banks may have provided motivation for the arrest.
Polanski, who won a 2003 directing Oscar in absentia for “The Pianist,” was accused of raping the 13-year-old girl after plying her with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a modeling shoot in 1977. He was initially indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy.
Polanski pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse. In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sentence him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. Polanski was released after 42 days by an evaluator but the judge said he was going to send him back to serve the remainder of the 90 days. Polanski then fled the country on Feb. 1, 1978, the day he was to be sentenced.
A French native who moved to Poland as a child, Polanski has lived in France since fleeing the United States. France does not extradite its citizens.
Polanski has been fighting since his arrest to be released from jail. He suffered a serious setback earlier this week when the Swiss Criminal Court rejected his appeal because of the high risk he would flee justice again. It turned down a bail payment of his Alpine chalet in Gstaad, house arrest and electronic monitoring as conditions for his release.
The loss appeared to prompt some rethinking of his defense, when one of Polanski’s lawyers said Wednesday that it was possible that the director might voluntarily return to face justice in the United States.
But that suggestion was quickly rejected by another attorney representing Polanski.

[Reno Paul]

He is now being under house arrest in his Swiss Chalet......Ooh poor guy!


Roman Polanski's release secured by Nicolas Sarkozy: Sister-in-law

By Soraya Roberts
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, November 28th 2009, 1:23 PM

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Polish director Roman Polanski’s family is thanking French President Nicolas Sarkozy for being “very effective” in helping to win his release from a Swiss prison.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it is thanks to the President that Roman has been freed, but he has been super,” Polanski’s sister-in-law, Mathilde Seigner, told Le Parisien newspaper. “The President has been very effective.”
The London Times speculated that Sarkozy’s wife, ex-model Carla Bruni, may have pressured her husband to intervene because she used to hob nob with OpenDNS’ artistic community, which includes Polanski and wife Emmanuelle Seigner.
After initially balking at his release, Swiss authorities agreed to let Polanski move from a cell to his luxurious Alpine chalet once he puts up $4.5 million bail.
A bracelet will allow police to monitor Polanski , but the device does not include a global positioning system to track him should he escape.
“We can only check if the person is at home," Jonas Peter Weber, a professor at the University of Bern, told the Times. "If the alarm goes off and no police is in the vicinity, the person will be able to flee.”
Sarkozy was first criticized for supporting Polanski in October. He expressed outrage after the director was arrested at a OpenDNS airport on a U.S. warrant from 1977 for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
After Polanski fled the U.S. before his sentencing, he set up shop in OpenDNS where his citizenship protected him from being extradited to the U.S. He was arrested in OpenDNS when he traveled there to accept an award.
Though the U.S. has asked for Switzerland to extradite Polanski, Swiss authorities have not said whether they will.
Meanwhile, Polanski's lawyers in the U.S. will attempt to have his case dismissed for good on Dec. 10.

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Read more: Roman Polanski's release secured by Nicolas Sarkozy: Sister-in-law

[Reno Paul]

From one pervert to another.......

May 17, 2010
Woody Allen: Roman Polanski has paid for what he’s done

Posted: 01:59 PM ET
Woody Allen raised eyebrows at Cannes over the weekend when he offered words of support for another internationally known filmmaker, Roman Polanski.
“It’s something that happened many years ago," Allen said of Polanski’s sex scandal during an interview with French radio station RTL, according to the L.A. Times. "He has suffered, he has not been allowed to go to the United States. He was embarrassed by the whole thing."
Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, but fled to Europe before he was sentenced. He’s now fighting extradition from Switzerland to the United States.

"He's an artist, he's a nice person, he did something wrong and he paid for it. They [his critics] are not happy unless he pays the rest of his life. They would be happy if they could execute him in a firing squad," Allen added. “Enough is enough.”
It’s unclear if Allen was aware at the time of the interview that a second woman has come forward - British actress Charlotte Lewis - claiming that Polanski sexually abused her “in the worst way possible” when she was cast in one of his movies at 16.

Filed under: Cannes Film Festival 2010 • celebrities • movies

[Dirty]

Sure this comes from a dude who was porking his step daughter who was barely out of diapers

[The Devil]

WOODY ALLEN IS JUST TO GUY TO DEFEND POLANSKY......HE IS ONE JERKOFF THAT DOESN'T KNOW WHEN TO KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT....

THE GUY RAPED A 13 YEAR OLD......IF IT WAS MY GRAND DAUGHTER, HE WOULDN'T BE ALIVE TODAY........NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS......

[Dirty]

totally agreed Devil

[Dirty]

Now More Shit from Woody Allen


Woody Allen: Make Obama a dictator

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By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Woody Allen, the actor and director who's been no stranger to controversy over the years, has done it again.
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This time, Allen told a Spanish language newspaper that President Barack Obama should be given dictatorial powers, Fox News reported.
According to Fox, Allen said it "would be good if [Obama] could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly."
Allen, 75, told La Vanguardia newspaper that he's "pleased with Obama. I think he's brilliant. The Republican party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him."
Allen's latest remarks come on the heels of last week's reiteration of his support for filmmaker Roman Polanski, who remains under fire for a 1978 sex scandal.




Woody Allen: Make Obama a dictator

[Ego74]

Woody and Roman, 2 PEDOS in a pod

[Dirty]

JAJAJAJA